Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-12-25


their downs though they are now having
their ups. They have worked for their
wealth, and have grasped the wheel of
fortune with their horny hands and made
it turn their way.
They began ss boys to think and act
for themselves and their fat bellies now
shske like bowls of jelly As they tell the
stories Of their first speculations. Uncle
Rufus Hatch, one of the boldest million
aires In Wall street, made his frst ven
ture as q school boy. will let him tell
the story as he lately told 1t to me. Said
he: "S;eel pens had just been intro
duced into the community. bought q
lot of them and peddled them out among
nv schoolmates. Pennies at the age OF
seven are bigger than 800 gold pieces at
| TWENTY one, end the few cents cleared
made me feel wealthy. Ny next specula-
| ton was turkeys. was, you know, q
farmers bow in Maine. Shortly before
ons Thanksgiving day l borrowed
800 of my father and bought lot OF tur-
keys shipped them to Salem, MASS,
and sold then, and my prohts were just
S29
Rufus Hatch WAS also surveyor. He
helped to lay out some Of the nrst ral.-
roads Of Michigan, and he got y 20
day fer his services. He once clerked IN
store where it is said he served all price s
of tea from one box and he has served as
locomotive engineer, and boasts tnat NE
can take spart snd put together any rail-
road engine now in use.
Speaking OF Hatch and the tea recalls
how G. P Huntington, the railway mag
nate who is now worth 500. O0O, 00O, ped
died out butter to the miners OF Callfor-
mia. He had three crocks, and his price
was So cents pound. The butter was
the same grade, but when the miners
wanted anything better he merely
came up On the price and
tried different crock. He tells to-day
how a miner paid 65 cents a
pound for butter which he would not
take at thirty five, and laughs as ne does
so at the gullibility of msnklnd. Hunt
irgton began his butter operations early.
He worked as poy for farmer who
sold about 200 pounds week one Day
q clerk came to the farm and SAID tnat
butter hsd fallen zoe on the pound, ana
thst instead of 40c it was only worth nall
that amount. Young Huntington here
stepped in and said he would give zoe
pound for the lot, and from his savings
he counted out the price A day or TWO
later he sold the whole st 6O cents
pound Butter had gone up instead OF
going down, and the clerks story was
evidently tinged with fraud.
Adam FOrepGugh was q butcher IN
Pniladelphia when he decided to 90 into
the show business He had little circus
and a Decent mensgerie. He paid at one
time Dan Rice SIS, 900 year for himself
and his blind horse, and made fortune
out of it. The Sells brothers, whose
shows are among the best in the country.
used to peddIe tinware, following a
travelling circus and selling to the crowds
Ore of the circuses that they thus attend
ed failed, and out of their savings they
bought it and made fortune. Jay Gould
csnveesed Delaware county, New York,
with his maps at 81 SO apiece, and these
maps are now worth $50 each SO curiosi
ties. He was taken in by the surveyor
he worked for, and his first trip to New
YORK was t. sell & mouse trap which he
patented. His trap WAS stolen, and made
nothing out of it. His first successful
speculation was the tannery, which
brought him to New York and to fortune.
Senator Farwell, the man who repre-
sents Illinois in Congress in General Lo-
gen's place, also began life as surveyor,
and his first employment in Chicago was
in surveying some school sections near
that city. He did the work so
well that he was given jo0
in the County Clerks office at
3S per month He now gets 5000 year
from the government, and his check is
good for a million and more.
These rich men were not ashamed to
work for low wages, and this has been
the rule of the boyhood OF nearly every
millionaire of to day. Andrew Carnegie
who owns estates and newspapers in
England, and who pays one of his fore
men in Pittsburg salary OF s25 600 a
year, did his frst work in Pittsburg
telegraph okice for IS week. From
here be was tsken'to the cflces of the
President Of the Pennsylvania
Railway Company, and through
Thomas Scott end his own brain he
got the start which made his fortune.
Tom Scott's father was tavern keeper,
and Scott, as young msp, was col
lector Of tolls on the canal. He w 8
offered position IS station master upon
the railroad, and he pitched up cent as
to whether he should take the position or
not "Heads is the railroad, tails the
canal,n ssid ae, and the penny came
down heads. He died at the head Of the
railroad, leaving fortune Of between
Sl5, OOe 0OO and $4,000, 900, and among
the charities were several gifts of $50, 600
each to educational Institutions.
The late Vice President Hoxie, the
railroad man. who was go opposed by
the Knights Of Labor, was once hostler
in Des Moines, and George Jones, OF The
New York Times, once kept news office
in Albany. The newspaper millionaires
to-day have generally come from small
beginnings. Pulitzer once acted as stoker
on 8 Mississippi steamboat, and he wore
the livery of coachmsn and drove the
carriage Of q msn who still lives in ST.
Louis. Whitelaw Reid did work as
Columbus correspondent Of
Cincinnati newspaper for s.
week, and the millionaire pro-
prietor OF the Baltimore Sun begsn
life poor. Edwin Cowles of the Cleve-
land Leader, vino has now g paper which
pays big interest on q million dollars,
can remember the time when most of the
WORK upon it was done by himself, and
Nedill of the Chicago Tribune left q
partnership with Cowles to go to the
Metropolis of the Lakes and make for
tune there. Everyone will remember the
beginnings of Horace Greedy and James
Gordon Bennett, and might go on to
cite the instances of nearly every news
paper man of the United States to-day.
It is the same in every branch OF life
and business. Our greatest publishers,
merchants hankers and manufacturers